An Eclectic Journal of Opinion, History, Poetry and General Bloviating

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Dennis Anderson to Host Town Hall Meeting in Woodstock

Dennis
Anderson,
a Democratic Party candidate for Congress in the new 14th
Congressional District, will host a town hall meeting in Woodstock on Wednesday, August 1 from
6 to 8 PM at the Woodstock Public Library, 414 West Judd
Street.

The meeting will
cover a variety of issues including the role of the Federal government, the economy,
and healthcare.

Town Hall Forums
are not a new concept. They originate in colonial America.The
first meeting of voters occurred in Dorchester,
Massachusetts in 1633. Although
a New England phenomena, Thomas
Jefferson once called them the “wisest invention ever devised by the wit of
man for the perfect exercise of government.”

However, town
hall meetings have fallen into decline.In Illinois, Township governments are required to
hold one each year to adopt a budget and conduct other business.In the smallest townships, election of
official are still conducted at the meeting, although conventional elections
have generally replaced that part of the agenda.

In recent years
they have become a favorite of campaigns.
Elected officials and candidates alike, during election years, hold a series of
town halls designed to talk about issues with voters. In recent years,
they have drawn the most extreme elements of both parties, who have seen it as
an opportunity to assail members of the political opposition.

The Anderson
campaign is hoping to return the Town Hall meeting to a thoughtful discussion
of issues between candidate and the voting public and avoiding, if possible,
shallow posturing and theatrics.